Welcome

Welcome to the Western Casewriters Association (WCA) Web site for the 2008 conference to be held in Oakland, Calif.

Jyoti Bachani, Assistant Professor, University of Redlands School of Business and Jim Spee, Associate Professor, University of Redlands School of Business have developed this site to provide information for conference participants.

The Conference

The Western Casewriters Association meeting held in conjunction with the Western Academy of Management (WAM) conference is a unique opportunity to engage with other case-writers in a small group format to exchange feedback and polish-up your case, learn about using cases in the class room, get a peer-reviewed conference on your vita and enjoy the presentations from leading case authors and case educators.

It is an excellent professional development opportunity because it is a "developmental" conference designed to provide feedback from experienced case researchers in order to move the projects toward eventual publication in a top-level journal such as the Case Research Journal.

The format is round-table discussions. You will be grouped with three or four other people who have written cases and will spend time with an experienced facilitator providing feedback on each others' cases. The feedback, although rigorous, is very friendly. Or, you may attend the conference just to learn more about case-research and see presentations on how to teach with cases.

Reasons to Attend

To improve your case. Round table discussions provide an opportunity for feedback that otherwise would be difficult to obtain.

The opportunity to hone and refine your case research, writing, and teaching skills. By participating in a serious, constructive debate over cases, discussants will gain a variety of valuable insights that will assist in the development of the case presented and cases to be written in the future.

Obtaining assistance in making your cases publishable. A high percentage of WCA cases are published in one form or another every year.

You will meet a lot of terrific people—dedicated case researchers, writers, and teachers to whom you can turn for friendship and assistance for years to come.

Who Should Attend

Academic researchers looking for a peer-reviewed platform to develop their research stream. If accepted, this will count as a peer-reviewed conference on your vita.

Educators looking to improve their classroom performance by incorporating cases into their curricula

People who want to visit San Francisco Bay area and to be able to deduct their travel expenses from their income tax